A lovely story addressing the family bonds and disagreements between siblings approached in a fun and child friendly way. The rhyming words sometimes felt a little forced and didn't flow easily when sight reading out loud but in general I loved the whole idea.

I like the cover of this book as its eye catching. This book is about Ella having a plan to get her cousins to be nice to each other. The illustrations are eye catching and the text rhymes which children like however I think its a book that grown ups would read to children as the text seems small and there is lots of it. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.

This book's illustrations and text-heavy print are incongruent to me. The illustrations and the story line is sweet, but the amount of words, either for a child to read or for an adult to read to a child are long. I cannot see my younger students sitting still for the length of this book. Too bad because it seems to be a lovely story about a sweet family.

This one could have been much better.

First the artwork is not that appealing. It seems rushed and repetitive.
Then, the story. It seems rushed as well in the second half. The first half dragged a bit.

The characters did not stand out.

These things usually don't happen with me with picture books. Sadly this didn't work for me.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved this intriguing story, with wacky family dynamics and a clever little protagonist.

Ella’s frustration with her cousins’ bickering is introduced as she talks with her mummy, who tells of how Great Grandad Frank once solved a similar issue with his children. Ella then tries to find an answer from Great Grandad Frank, but keeps getting interrupted. Left only with the encouragement that she is clever enough to figure it out, she sets out to solve her cousins’ quarrels.

The story was perfectly suited to be told through poetry, adding to the anticipation of what might happen next. My only critique would be that at times I found the rhythm to be a little funny.

The characters are well developed in such a short space of time, and you can’t help but want to be part of the family by the end. Ella is such a clever little girl- one to be looked up to- who uses her brain to show her cousins how to be kind. Second to Ella would have to be Great Grandad Frank, a sequel from him is surely called for.

Great book! Both the artwork and the sing-songy rhyming text made this story feel warm and inviting. Though it did feel a bit too wordy at times, the book overall tells a cute story about a little girl who just wants her cousins to get along and comes up with a brilliant plan to make it so!

I liked the art but the story fell a little flat for me. The message was good, but the prank, I guess for kids ok. The rhymes seemed a bit forced sometimes.

In this book, Ella is determined that nothing will ruin her mum's party, especially not her arguing cousins. She seeks help from her Great-grandfather Frank, but in the end comes up with her own solution. The illustrations are lovely and the realism adds a richness to the text. The rhyme and beats are slightly off meter at times, but nothing that interferes with the story. I would recommend adding this book to school libraries. We need more books with children of color in our classrooms.

Thank you NetGalley and The Ella Riley Group for an e-ARC.

Super quick and fun story about how kids should treat each other well. Ella comes up with a plan to show her cousins to be nice to each other.
Pretty sweet story to read to little children.

A cute little story about how kids should be nice to each other. Little Ella came up with a plan to show her cousins that they were pretty similar even though they had their differences.
Cute, short, and sweet.

When Ella's cousins Take and Jade starts arguing at her mother's party, Ella knows she must figure out a way to sort them out once and for all.

Oh Ella. She's so sweet and smart. The main thing I enjoyed about this is the fact that none of the adults tried helping her out except for when she asked for help. This allowed the main character to shine and show that kids are able to figure some things out by themselves.

We really enjoyed this book. It has a great story and is really fun to read. The illustrations are fun and really add to the story. We liked the main character and her plan. It is a great wee story for little ones to enjoy.

A sweet tale set at a contemporary family party. I read this book because I was looking for illustrations of a black family, which were absolutely lovely, modern and fresh. However, the rhyming story was quite long and didn't hold my children's attention-a real shame for such a nicely presented book.

This was such a cute book! Lovely illustrations with rhyming lines, this small book was a treat to read. I think kids will like it too!

This was a very cute story about Ella who sets up a plan to stop her cousins fighting at her mum’s party. Lovely story and loved the rhyming.

This was just a really cute and very well written book. The art was super cute and I loved that the whole book rhymed. It was also a slower paced book, so I got to really take my time and enjoy reading it.

This was a cute story with a great message, but it was WAY TOO LONG! The subject matter seems fitting for 3-5 year olds, but I think it may not quite hold their attention for the entirety of the story.

The lesson of the story and the illustrations were great, but this isn't something I would enjoy reading to my kids.

3.5/5 stars

“Ella Has A Plan” by Davina Hamilton is a children’s story about a little game named Ella who is worried that her cousins squabbling may ruin an upcoming family gathering. She comes up with a plan to help diffuse their argument with the help from some of her family members.

I read this book with my two children and we thoroughly enjoyed the rhythm of the story, written in rhyming couplets. The book is perhaps slightly longer than other picture books we would usually read however I don’t believe this is a negative and we enjoyed the anticipation of what was to come next. My children especially loved the illustrations at the end of the book which named every character in the story. I thought this was a lovely tool and something we haven’t seen before in our other favourites. My only criticism would be that I personally think the illustrations of the whole family and their names at the end of the book could have been at the front so we knew in advance who was who however this did not take away from our enjoyment and instead, we just read the book again once we found these images.

Overall, I will rate this book very highly and I would highly recommend to anybody with young children.

I received an e-ARC of this book from Davina Hamilton, and the Ella Riley Group through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This was a cute rhyming story about Ella and how she came up with a plan to stop her cousins from fighting all the time to ensure that her mother’s party goes smoothly.

This was a nice book to read with my son. It had quite a large word count compared to what I would normally expect for a child’s picture book which made it a longer story than I expected.
It followed a great rhyming pattern throughout, although there were just a couple of places that were tricky to fit the rhythm with the rhyme so it would be worth reading through first before reading aloud to an audience.
The story had a good moral theme of Ella trying to help her cousins not to argue and see that they are more alike than they realise but due to the length of the story there was a lot of build up which then, when the plan was executed, it felt like it had been overhyped a bit!
The illustrations are lovely and colourful with positive messages dotted in the background as pictures on the wall. The characters are a multi generational family of African/Caribbean descent so this is an excellent choice to bring some much needed diversity to children’s book shelves. I loved the variety of hairstyles in the illustrations, very modern and true to life.
Overall a nice bedtime story and I rated it 3⭐️